Pirates, Merchants and Holy Warriors: The Early Modern Mediterranean - MHIS222

In the sixteenth century, the Mediterranean Ocean appeared to form the contested border between two great empires: the Islamic Ottoman Empire of North Africa and the Middle East and the Christian Habsburg Empire of Europe. But this marine frontier was not simply a place of hostilities but also the point at which different peoples met and coexisted: a place inhabited by merchants and travelers as well as pirates, renegades, and holy warriors. This unit examines the multiple encounters and exchanges that occurred between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the early modern Mediterranean, exploring questions of identity, geography, empire, and religion in an era of transition and change as the new Atlantic World began eclipse the older Mediterranean world.